President Obama has agreed to put in an appearance promoting travel in a video public service announcement being planned by the new Corporation for Travel Promotion.
The video is expected to debut in San Francisco next May at the Discover America Pow Wow, the annual event sponsored by the U.S. Travel Association where U.S. destinations and travel suppliers meet with foreign operators and travel agents to develop inbound business.
Plans for the video were outlined at last week’s meeting of the corporation’s board, conducted by conference call. During the meeting, the board also agreed to get a basic "B-to-B" website up and running within 30 days, so that industry and government officials can keep up with the corporation’s activities.
For the longer term, the board also plans to develop promotional sites for overseas markets and is pursuing plans to use the Discover America trademark, under an agreement with U.S. Travel, which owns it. Discover USA is also under consideration.
Because the corporation has no staff, board member Tom Klein, president of Sabre Holdings, agreed to take charge of getting the initial website launched.
Other members, and their companies or organizations, are also handling basic startup chores. Daniel Halpern, CEO of Jackmont Hospitality, for example, is developing requests for proposal to retain legal counsel and accounting services. George Fertitta, CEO of NYC and Company, New York’s tourism promotion arm, is assessing the state of current market research.
Board Chairman Stephen Cloobeck, CEO of Diamond Resorts International, also provided an "administrative update," noting that the organization has been formally incorporated in the District of Columbia and has a bank account (at Bank of America), though it is still awaiting its initial grant of $10 million in startup funds from the Commerce Department.
Helen Murano, a Commerce Department official who was on the conference call, explained that the funds are authorized and will be forthcoming, possibly in a week or so. Cloobeck said he was glad to hear it, because "we have invoices" already.
An application for tax-exempt status is in progress, as is a plan to obtain $10 million in errors and omissions insurance for the directors.
After those preliminaries, the first order of business for the group is to retain an executive search firm to recruit a CEO. The selection of the search firm was discussed during a closed session.
Created by the Travel Promotion Act, which was enacted this year, the public-private Corporation for Travel Promotion is tasked with promoting the U.S. as a travel destination in foreign markets.